


Imperfect Soldier

by KureKai_King



Series: Our Tomorrow [1]
Category: ARGONAVIS from BanG Dream! AAside (Video Game)
Genre: 25 Fic Set, Gen, Old Friendships, Patrols, Regrets, Soldiers, The Outcast Society, broken society, dystopian au, outcasts, the empire
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-16 15:09:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29084418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KureKai_King/pseuds/KureKai_King
Summary: Not everyone had a choice.Not everyone stayed behind.Do old bonds still hold together?Reon feels trapped in the only place he believed he could find solitude.
Series: Our Tomorrow [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2133864
Comments: 2
Kudos: 5





	Imperfect Soldier

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday, Reon! <3

_"The world is so depressing…,” A young boy with dark hair falling over half his face, covering an eye, mumbled as he sat cross-legged on a dusty wooden floor. Dust particles sprinkled onto his torn shorts, more falling when he shook his head, hunching his shoulders and peeking up at his two best friends._

_“Everything’s falling apart…I-I don’t even know anybody anymore! Wh-Who do we even know who to trust now?” His redhead friend stuttered, voice dripping with fear and uncertainness. His pale green eyes used to be so full of light before The Empire came and tore their world apart. He reached out to touch his shoulder, feeling bad when his friend flinched in response._

_Their other friend jumped up onto a wooden crate. It creaked under his pitiful weight. His blue eyes seemed to hold enough brightness and his voice sounded hopeful enough for all three of them, “Come on guys! We can do this ourselves! Sure, the world isn’t looking so great right now, but we can do something about it!” He threw his arms open wide and grinned._

_The dark-haired boy and the redhead beside him couldn’t help but look at the third member of their trio in awe. The world was falling apart around them day by day due to the presence of The Empire and yet this young boy who had lost everything but the two of them shined as bright as the sun used to._

_He filled them with hope._

_Hands on his hips now, the boy on the crate puffed out his chest, proudly, “One way or another, even if we have to meet on the battlefield, we’re going to be the ones who save this world”._

* * *

_“Misono!”_ Reon jumped to attention at the sound of his name, falling into a position of salute and silently gulping when the tip of a sword was millimetres away from piercing his throat. He forced himself to lock eyes with his General, “Tch. Pay attention, else it will cost you your life”.

“Y-Yes, Sir…,” he mumbled hopelessly and watched as his General’s burnt amber gaze finally tore away from him and those now familiar black, steel-toed boots clacked their way down the lined-up formation of soldiers.

Soldiers just like him.

It wasn’t that Reon truly enjoyed being a soldier, especially one under The Empire, but there had been no choice. He didn’t want to exactly stay where the ones who had peacefully refused to join The Empire still roamed (named now as The Outcasts) nor did he ever consider himself to be brave enough to fully put up a fight against the new society order (anyone who did so was labelled and branded as not only an outcast but also a traitor to which there were measures in place to have them punishable by death if caught).

Part of him deeply missed his old home. He wasn’t the most comfortable having to bunk in a base with a group of strangers and so he avoided them when and where he could.

His partner, Ryo, wasn’t so bad. Reon could tolerate him. The guy had a spacey air about him, almost constantly in a world of his own which made it easier for Reon to avoid talking. He’d mutter and mumble to himself now and then, sometimes catching Reon’s initial interest, but it would quickly diminish when he realised it was just babbled nonsense.

“Misono, Akebono. Patrol the edge of the commonplace,” came their General’s harsh voice, “Make sure anyone caught sneaking out of the area is severely punished. And if you see anyone on The List then make sure they are properly dealt with”.

“Yes, Sir!” The both of them chorused in response, saluting before turning away at the General’s dismissal.

Reon and Ryo trekked down overgrown dirt pathways as they walked the border of the commonplace – The Outcast Society, as it was mostly known – and the eerie silence that accompanied the pair made Reon shiver with uneasy chills running down his spine.

He knew the commonplace. He’d been a part of it but had left it all behind when he chose to make some kind of life as one of The Empire’s soldiers. It was one of his biggest regrets but he couldn’t go back on the decision now.

The only way he could even be back in The Outcast Society would be to either have the Emperor banish him there and have money on his name or to get sent to patrol within the area itself rather than just the border.

It truly had become such a cruel world.

The Outcast Society suffered the most; they tried their best to ignore The Empire even existed, but they were never free from its grasp. Cold claws of doom always had them in their clutches.

Not that Reon’s life within The Empire’s soldier force was much better. In fact, some could say that it’s worse. It didn’t help that his General was not particularly fond of him, always complaining that he slacked off or missed parts of his reports, and yet he never chose to simply revoke Reon of his position and send him scurrying for shelter elsewhere.

“It’s so boring here,” Ryo suddenly drawled, cutting into the silence, hands behind his head as they walked their given route, “I wish someone from The Outcast Society would scamper out here so we could have something fun to do in catching and turning them in”.

“Isn’t that just cruel, though?” Reon asked, “They’d have to be pretty brave to even try escaping, anyway. The Emperor seems to love shedding the blood of innocents…”

“But they’re not innocent! Trying to escape is defying their ruler! Don’t you know that, Reon?”

He quickly nodded, reassuring his companion of where his loyalties laid.

Cutting off the topic before his tongue wound him up in some trouble with either his partner, his General or, God forbid, The Emperor himself, Reon thought back to someone from his life who had managed to do what many believed was the impossible; escaped.

His friend had been the one to keep hope alive back when Reon had lived in the commonplace. Even though they’d simply just been nothing more than young children ripped away from the life they’d always known (a proper home, education, family…), Reon’s friend had kept pushing forward determinedly and in turn, Reon had grasped onto the tails of that hope in his friend.

He didn’t know where his friend had gone off to, but nonetheless, he was glad to know he’d made it out of that hell, alive.

“Reon?” Ryo’s voice snapped to his attention.

“Hm?”

“There’s someone around”.

“You’re sure?” Had he been too lost in his thoughts to hear anything?

Ryo nodded, lifting his sword in front of him but slightly off to the left, “Over that way”.

Reon’s heart dropped in the pit of his stomach as he, too, suddenly noticed the faint rustle of foliage. Taking a silent deep breath, he unsheathed his sword and crept his way toward it. He sickeningly felt like a predator stalking up on its prey ready to strike.

Gently pushing his way into the overgrowth, Reon kept his steps light. Ryo hadn’t followed and Reon gave a quick glance over his shoulder to see that his partner had decided to keep following the original path, although his steps were slow. He was waiting for Reon to do this himself. He was keeping back so that if their unexpected encounter made a run for it, Ryo would be ready to catch them if Reon failed.

His heart pounding in his chest, Reon continued to stalk forward, the leaves rustling ahead. He prayed with all his might that it would just be a hare wandering by and minding its own business or a stray cat or literally anything he wouldn’t have to…kill.

The rustling stopped just before him and Reon braced himself before pushing his way through the overgrown shrubs and his heart sank even lower in his stomach when he discovered two extremely frightened children looking up at him.

Had he been alone…he would have let them run.

_I’m so sorry,_ he cursed his bad luck and forced himself not to sheathe his sword. _They’re just kids! They don’t deserve this…,_ Reon held back his emotional pain as the two children – a blond boy and a brunette girl – trembled in their shredded clothing before him. Masking any pity he held in his expression, he simply clicked his fingers and told the two to follow him.

They would be taken to his General and to which they would then be sent to The Emperor.

Only he could decide their fate.

Especially if they came from The Outcast Society.

“W-We’re sorry!” The boy stammered and Reon could see his small fists clenched determinedly at his sides. “My sister…she’s sick! A-All the healers turned us away! We just wanted to find some medicine…”

Reon’s heart went out to them but he simply shook his head, _I’m sorry, too…,_ he thought before sighing as they exited the forestry area and back onto the worn dirt path where Ryo was, “I don’t care,” he forced a growl.

“How could you want to do this to people?!” The boy snapped while his sister began to cry, slipping her hand into his, “We thought The Empire was supposed to help us and protect us! But nothing like that ever happened!”

_I_ don’t want _to do this, kid, believe me. I have about as much choice in this as you do, I’m afraid… You just keep being strong for your sister…,_ Reon pleaded in his head to the young boy as Ryo fell into step behind him to make sure they didn’t try making a run for it while Reon kept leading them to the city.

His life was by no means perfect.

He, himself, was by no means perfect.

It felt strangely and uncomfortably fitting.

But that’s just what Reon was.

An imperfect soldier.

* * *

_Silence._

_White noise._

_That was all that filled his ears until a blood-curdling scream cut through._

_He trembled beneath his armour, not caring if his General and fellow soldiers were looking. He doubted they were though._

_Everyone had their eyes on one thing in that room._

_In that moment._

_The man who would be named a hero, slowly dying in his friend’s arms. The friend who had screamed._

_A bond was being broken by Death himself._

_A hero’s blood stained the marble slates that made up the floor of the room, trickling from his body and sealing itself in the cracks between each one._

_As if it were making a mark._

_Anger suddenly boiled up inside him and he turned, raising his weapon._

_He wasn’t going to hide anymore._

_He would fight for what was right._

_He would fight for his friend and the legacy that would be told for generations to come._


End file.
